Abstract

When a thin epitaxial layer is grown on Si, it is under biaxial compression. In this letter, it is shown that a nickel germanosilicide layer formed on can significantly reduce the in-plane compressive strain in . It is proposed that the observed reduction is due to the biaxial tensile stress applied by the layer. Because the bandgap is a strong function of the strain, this is expected to have a strong impact on the metal-semiconductor barrier height and the contact resistivity of the interface if the metal Fermi level is pinned near the midgap.

Received 22 February 2007Accepted 18 September 2007Published online 04 October 2007

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by a Grant (1137.001) from Semiconductor Research Corporation. The authors express their gratitude to the NCSU Nanoelectronics Facility personnel for their contributions during the course of this work.